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Exceptional collection of camp letters written by physician Jan Nowak donated to the Auschwitz Museum Archives
A collection of letters and documents related to Jan Nowak, a physician from Kraków who, as a prisoner of German Nazi concentration camps, worked in camp hospitals and helped other prisoners, has been donated to the Auschwitz Museum Archives. The documents, including a letter sent from the camp and seven letters sent to the camp by his relatives, were donated on 11 July by Marek Trybulski, owner of the Kraków Numismatic Salon.
The collection was discovered by chance. A woman came to Marek Trybulski wishing to sell coins. She also mentioned that she had a camp letter and did not know what she should do with it.
“The next day she came to the shop and placed more than 90 documents in front of me. The size of this collection is incredible. I had never before seen such an extensive and diverse collection relating to one prisoner. It includes letters, postcards, parcel receipt confirmations and other documents,” said Marek Trybulski.
The part of the collection connected with Jan Nowak’s imprisonment in KL Auschwitz has been donated to the Museum Archives. More than 80 documents relating to his imprisonment in KL Lublin will be given to the State Museum at Majdanek, while a document from the period of his imprisonment in KL Gross-Rosen will be donated to the Gross-Rosen Museum.
Jan Nowak was a physician from Kraków. The Germans deported him to KL Auschwitz on 26 June 1941. In the camp, he worked in prisoner hospitals, primarily in the infectious diseases ward in Block 20.
He cooperated, among others, with Stanisław Głowa, a prisoner and orderly involved in helping the sick. Prisoners employed in the hospitals tried, within the very limited possibilities available to them, to save people who were at risk of selection or death.
On 18 February 1942, Jan Nowak was transferred from Auschwitz to KL Lublin together with three other doctors. Their task was to organize prisoner hospitals there. After a long period at Majdanek, Nowak was transferred to KL Gross-Rosen, and then to Leitmeritz, a subcamp of KL Flossenbürg in Litoměřice. It was there that he lived to see liberation.
After the war, he testified in proceedings against former German SS doctors and against Erich Muhsfeldt, an SS officer responsible for crimes committed, among other places, in KL Lublin and KL Auschwitz.
“Collections as extensive as this, relating to one specific person, are donated to us extremely rarely. In this case, the large number of letters sent to Jan Nowak by his relatives, both to Auschwitz and to Majdanek, is of particular significance. Reading these documents, we can see how important the bond was that prisoners tried to maintain with their families despite being imprisoned in a concentration camp. It gave them hope and the strength they needed to survive,” said Dr Wojciech Płosa, head of the Museum Archives.
Marek Trybulski was particularly moved by a letter that Jan Nowak received from his mother for Christmas. In its upper left-hand corner, there is a hand-drawn Christmas tree decorated with baubles and a candle.
“For a man imprisoned in the camp, this small Christmas tree must have had to replace all the Christmases he had previously spent with his family. Jan Nowak was a deeply religious person, which is clearly visible in his correspondence. Looking at this letter, one can try to imagine what such a drawing and a message from his mother meant to him in the reality of the camp. It is a document that evokes very strong emotions,” said the donor.
“In the case of documents like these, I see no other choice than to place them in the hands of professionals. I know they will be read, analysed, secured and placed where they belong. These are values that cannot be converted into money. This is the history of the camp and of a specific person. Documents like these should not be traded,” Marek Trybulski emphasized.
Official correspondence of KL Auschwitz prisoners was subject to strict restrictions. The ability to write letters was a privilege denied to, among others, Jewish prisoners and Soviet prisoners of war.
Letters could be written only in German. Family members also had to reply in the same language. Prisoners who did not know German relied on the help of fellow prisoners. They also learned from them how to complete the form, what address to provide, and how their families could send money, parcels and postage stamps.
All correspondence was checked by camp censorship. SS men removed passages considered suspicious or too precise in describing the conditions in the camp. The letters had to include an assurance that the prisoner was healthy, even though very often this was not true.
Documents donated to the Museum Archives are stored in properly equipped repositories and remain under the care of archivists and paper conservators. Whenever possible, copies are made and may later be made available to researchers, historians, journalists and prisoners’ families.
“I am deeply moved by Mr Trybulski’s sensitivity and his attitude in this matter. Every document adds to our knowledge; every fact emerging from such letters enters the bloodstream of history and memory. Similar letters or documents remaining in private hands push specific victims and events into the shadow of oblivion. In Museums and Memorials, meanwhile, they will be conserved, studied, compared and preserved in the best possible conditions. Mr Trybulski deserves our deepest appreciation,” said Museum Director Dr Piotr M. A. Cywiński.
The originals will remain secured in conditions ensuring their long-term preservation.
